Sen. Mike Lee of Utah will reintroduce a bill next year to protect people and corporations that hold a religious objection to same-sex marriage, a spokesman for his office told BuzzFeed News, adding that the political climate amid Donald Trump’s presidency will give the legislation a better shot at advancing than it had the past two years.

“Hopefully November’s results will give us the momentum we need to get this done next year,” said Lee’s spokesman, Conn Carroll. Trump vowed during the campaign to sign the First Amendment Defense Act, arguing it would “protect the deeply held religious beliefs of Catholics and the beliefs of Americans of all faiths.”

Carroll added, “We do plan to reintroduce FADA next Congress and we welcome Trump’s positive words about the bill.” The measure was filed in both the House and Senate in 2015, but only got a hearing in the House. The bill faltered amid protests from Democrats and speculation that President Obama would veto the measure if it reached his desk.

Last year’s version of the bill had 172 sponsors in the House and 37 in the Senate.

Never happen. At best that delays it a few hours/days. They don’t have the numbers to stop anything that the GOP wants to put on the floor.

Todd20036

Threaten government shutdown.
Maybe they’ll grow a spine and do this.

fuow

We can’t do that, either. We’re screwed, thanks to the gay men who didn’t bother to vote.

Ninja0980

To put it bluntly our numbers alone weren’t going to save Hillary.
We need other parts of the Democratic base to turn out… and they didn’t.

fuow

I focus my anger toward the group to whom I belong. Of course young women who didn’t vote or voted ‘their conscience’ for Stein are absolutely to blame. Just, even if we’re only 1% of the population (which is beyond belief, given that every other Western nation puts us at many times that), had every gay man (who is eligible) bothered to vote, we would not have lost.

Nowhereman

Tell it to the Log Closet Republicans.

fuow

Yeah, well there were Jews for Hitler, too. Not for long, though…..

Todd20036

Or didn’t vote for Clinton

Guest

Why are you hating on GAY MEN? There is guilt and blame enough to go all around. Gay men, lesbians, AA’s, Hispanics, progressive white men, progressive white women. Last I heard, none of those groups voted much at 100% of their numbers. So save your fingerpointing for all groups.

fuow

Christ on crutches, you’re not only too fucking stupid to have a real name, you’re so screwed in the head you can’t even read.
I’ll enter this very s-l-o-w-l-y, that you might comprehend it: I’m focusing primarily on the group to whom I belong. We gay men are the second most threatened group of people. Only transgender people are subject to more violence and hatred than we are.
Just, except for people as fucked in the head as you are such as Jenner, I can’t imagine any transgender person being so stupid to vote for Trump.
Fucktard.

tristram

Not sure the Dems could effectuate a shutdown or make a convincing threat of it even if they were all in sync. And the Republicans would love Dems to threaten a shutdown over this bill. We know the intent behind it and the likely effect it will have. But lots of people – including many who support marriage equality – believe that the bill is a reasonable way to protect religious beliefs. Going so far as to threaten a shutdown on this matter would further damage the Dems – and do you think it would materially boost gay pro-Dem turnout in the next election? (LOL!)

fuow

Sounds good, but they’ll just put it in one of the budget reconciliation bills and we’re fucked.

Todd20036

I really didn’t have hope for this. Frankly I think Trump will sign it. He will say it’s not anti LBGT, just pro religion.
Yeah, we will be fucked if this reaches Trump’s desk.

tristram

The Republicans know it’s within their grasp to control the Senate for decades to come. They are itching to ditch the filibuster, and the Dems will be desperate to avoid using it on high-profile legislation to avoid the nuclear option. Cooler GOP heads might prevail to postpone nuking it for the next two years on the theory that all the red-state Dem senators will lose in 2018 and the GOP will have a veto-proof majority anyway. Whatever happens, the filibuster won’t save us on this one.

Vista-Cruiser

Republicans plan to get rid of the filibuster. Consider it gone by the end of this coming January.

fuow

That would be a ‘yes’. It was because of Democrats who stayed home that we got in this mess to begin with.

watchthewingnuts

….and Democrats who voted for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson out of spite because Bernie didn’t get the nomination.

Ninja0980

Yup, even though St. Bernie also opposed marriage equality at one point, he was our “true” ally while Hillary was “evil.”

fuow

Probably the most relevant comment of the day. At least.

Jacky G

And for YOU it was COMPLETELY OPPOSITE! Hillary “evolved”, Bernie was the hypocrite. I didn’t support neither of them but “calling out” somebodys bullshit while at the same time defending your own bullshit is beyond pathetic. Even some repubs have “evolved” just like your Innocent Victim Hillary but they are”pure evil” to you as well. Supporting your own candidate is a one thing but being a hypocritical loser is another. Hillary was lesser of the two evils but far from even decent.

Now now, don’t leave out the ‘hip leftists’ who are to cool to be Democrats. We all owe them a big Fuck You too.

Dom Saunders

Do we really?

Oikos

Yes.

Nowhereman

I doubt they are democrats. They are just idiots.

Nowhereman

Funny, because 3 million more of us actually DID vote for Clinton rather than Trump. There’s a lot more going on here than democrats not voting. There’s also a hell of a lot of us who didn’t get to vote at all thanks to the GOPTP voter suppression actions and purges. Fix THAT.

fuow

You can’t fix stupid. Had a sufficient number of Democrats voted – say just over 71,000 more, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
If you’d bothered to follow my comments here across the last, oh, say, ten years or so, you might have noticed my thoughts on voter suppression, gerrymandering and other GOP dirty tricks.

Kate

If the republicans abuse reconciliation, they can pass whatever they want, and Trump will sign.

I’ve been focused on gay men who were such asswipes they didn’t bother to vote for Hillary (or, worse, voted for Stein or Trump).
In your case I’ll make an exception.
You deserve everything horrible which is coming down the pike toward queer people. And women. You belong to at least one of those groups, though I doubt any of the others in your group are happy about it.

Butch

Give him a chance to do what? Do you think he’s suddenly going to start acting any differently? His entire campaign was based on hatred and divisiveness.

Skeptical_Inquirer

Hmm, they haven’t thrown people off the roofs! Let’s wait and see! /s

GayOldLady

Lady……You don’t know WTH you’re talking about. Religious freedom laws are written to give businesses the right to discriminate against us in everything from housing to jobs. This isn’t about a wedding cake, flowers or a photo. It’s about housing, jobs, adoption, etc……..These laws also give providers and retail outlets the right to refuse reproductive services to women, specifically abortion meds and contraception. And I will not give tRump a chance. He is the epitome of everything I abhor. You can give him a chance then when he fails you can come back here and apologize for your mistake. Oh, I remember now, you don’t live here, so you won’t suffer the repercussions of your vote, you’re living in safety in Canada.

Kate

“Written to give businesses the right to discriminate”

Yes, by refusing to serve. The republicans don’t like laws that require companies to serve people. Nor, for that matter, do I. I just believe that it should be done properly under the equal protection clause – none at all. I should be free to refuse to serve christians, and they should be free to refuse to serve me.

“It’s about housing, jobs, adoption, etc.”

Adoption is a government function – like section 8, if you take government money, you should not be able to discriminate. Beyond that, I don’t want to hire or rent to christians. I shouldn’t have to.

“You’re living safety[sic] in Canada”

I’m moving back as quickly as I can get my affairs in order. It was President Clinton that fucked up our marriage recognition, which is why we first went to Canada. We’re coming back for Trump.

And please stop representing DOMA as Bill Clinton’s creation. It was created by a GOP Congress and signed by Clinton. But if you moved to Canada after DOMA you didn’t have your marriage recognized there until 2005. We’ve had marriage equality here since 2015 and DOMA was overturned in 2013. You could have moved to a State where Marriage was recognized and had your marriage recognized by the Federal Government since 2013. Still, since you’re so anti-government WHY do you care whether or not the U.S. Government recognizes your marriage.

Kate

I was married in 2010. In Canada. I wouldn’t give the US power over whether or not to try to invalidate my marriage.

I lived in the US until 2014, and am well aware of the timeline. After DOMA was overturned (and properly so), the state we lived in came out with a special form to try to back out our marriage to force us to file as single (since taxes are done on the basis of federal law). That was enough for us, and we moved.

After being in CA for Prop 8, in AZ for their version of Prop 8, NJ both when it failed in the legislature, and when it was vetoed by Christie, we moved to Canada. We’re adopting, and I didn’t want our children to have to deal with being seen as lesser in the eyes of the law. The government is required to serve all people.

People are welcome to not like me, but I have a real problem when my own government forces my employer (who wants to provide equal benefits) to have special taxes for the medical insurance for my spouse.

I will not expose my kids to government-sanctioned discrimination – when a business discriminates, we can shop elsewhere.

fuzzybits

You may not want your future kids to be seen as lesser but you don’t seem to have a problem with being seen as such. Good lesson to teach them.

Vista-Cruiser

I think that each one of her “kids” is actually a gun of some kind.

Paula

So, you ran away then?

Kate

Yes, I did. Guilty as charged. I also tried to sue the State of Arizona, but the 9th circuit solved that one.

I will run to protect my family.

andrew

Your whole life story is an obvious fabrication used to make your political points. LOL.

Kate

“Obvious fabrication”

I’m easy enough to find. Care to name a part you think is false?

GayOldLady

“Adoption is a government function”

Actually it isn’t. In the U.S. most Adoption agencies are private.

Kate

The role the adoption agency serves is on behalf of the government. Replacing legal parenthood is a government job.

GayOldLady

The Governments only role is in recording the adoption. Most Adoptions in the U.S. are through private agencies, many of which want to deny adoption services to Gay couples. Lady, you’ve been gone too long!!!

Kate

My brother is adopted. I worked for a time in the adoption industry (our clients were adoption agencies). I know how adoption works.

Regardless of how the process of legal baby selling works in practice, only the government has the right to change legal parentage in that way.

We used a private agency, but we still went to a court to do the actual adoption, and it had to be in the interest of the child. The government issued the adoption order, and the new birth certificate.

The agency got paid to connect couples, but the government regulated, oversaw, and performed the actual adoption.

GayOldLady

“I should be free to refuse to serve christians,”

No, religion is protected. You are free to tell them to “fuck off” if they come into your business, but you’ll never be free to refuse to serve them. You really don’t want to move back to the U.S. because this is ChristianUtopiaVille.

tristram

You keep saying that you should be able to refuse to serve Christians, but Trump and the Republicans won’t allow you that ‘freedom.’ All of the federal antidiscrimination laws – housing, employment and public accommodations – prohibit discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.” The GOP has never tried to take religion out of that – they are just making damn sure that ‘sexual orientation’ never gets included – expressly or by implication. This bill will pass and it will just be the beginning. Mattis wants gays out of the military, and he’ll find a way. With the likelihood of 3 SCOTUS appointments in Trump’s first term, five years from now Roberts will be the left-center vote on the court, but he won’t be able to prevent reversal (or effective neutering) of Obergefell and Windsor. And when it happens, Trump will say, “I have no problem with the gays, But it wasn’t my call. The Supreme Court has spoken. It’s settled law.”

Kate

I know they won’t permit that freedom – it’s hypocrisy, and it bugs the shit out of me. Trump was the better candidate, but that didn’t make him a great candidate, particularly when he sold out to the evangelicals to make the presidency happen.

The evangelicals love to say being gay is a choice. If we’re going to protect choice (such as religion), then we should do so equally. If we’re not going to, then we shouldn’t do any protection at all.

Chiro Magna

When you say: “I should be free to refuse to serve christians, and they should be free to refuse to serve me.”

Isn’t it illegal for me to refuse service to Christians as the laws stand today? And yet, it will be a one way street w/ Trump in that people can discriminate against gays but not the other way around?

Kate

“Isn’t it illegal for me to refuse service to Christians as the laws stand today? ”

It is. It shouldn’t be. Christianity is a choice.

“And yet, it will be a one way street w/ Trump in that people can discriminate against gays but not the other way around?”

It likely will be, and that will be a travesty, and hypocrisy. I stand against it.

fuow

And you so richly deserve him. Why is it the Canadians keep sending us their worst?

Jerry

And to say that Republicans won’t go after our rights on any specific issue is stupid, considering that they wrote the most anti-lgbt platform in their history. Reinstating DOMA, DADT, and bringing anti-marriage court cases–as soon as they fix the Supreme Court–is all on the table.

GayOldLady

And you’re so naive you don’t think they’ll go after Marriage Equality? The hell you say!! They’re coming after it with everything they have. You might want to stay in Canada

They want it. They aren’t going to get it. Marriage equality is settled law.

GayOldLady

Do you think ROE is settled law? Because if you do you don’t really understand what the Republicans are getting ready to do to ROE.

And thank goodness for the 19th Amendment, if not for that you and I would just be talking out of our ass. And it also proves, that like the buybull, the Constitution isn’t inerrant. So don’t try to sell me on the virtue of the Electoral College. When the 600k Population of WY has more of an impact in the selection of a POTUS than 39 Million Californians, something is seriously wrong. The Constitution was written by men who could not foresee the USA of 2016 where there would be a 3 million popular vote difference. Or that a man, who the majority rejected, is in the process of undermining our Democracy and about to become POTUS. They would roll in their graves.

fuzzybits

We know that well here in Ohio where the heartbeat bill is sitting on the Gov. desk right now.

GayOldLady

People who know a lot more about than I believe ROE will be overturned by 2018. Apparently they have cases lined up to overturn ROE and Obergefell.

Kate

“Do you think ROE is settled law?”

Of course not. That would be stupid. I fully expect the republicans to do more to annihilate it in the next four years than in any four period since it was passed. It was bad law to begin with, and Trump’s SCOTUS appointees may very well flat-out overturn it.

Killing people is regulated by the states. The federal government had no business (tenth amendment) interfering in the first place.

The difference between Roe and Marriage Equality is that overturning Roe returns it to the states, and doesn’t criminalize any past abortions. It can be done swiftly, easily, and without legal or procedural complications.

Overturning marriage equality, on the other hand, would cause absolute chaos. There are a lot of married couples, and it would cause issues with parentage, inheritance, benefits, adoption, and so on. If you exempt the existing married couples, you get Prop 8 all over again, and violate equal protection as couple’s marital status depends on when they got married.

“When the 600k population of WY has more of an impact”.

They don’t. California has 18 times the impact. The EC keeps it from being 65, as it should.

“Who could not foresee the USA of 2016 where there would be a 3 million popular vote difference.”

They’d wonder why there was a popular vote in the first place, since the states elect the president in the first place. The states have chosen to hold popular votes, to determine how they act, but they are under no obligation to do so.

Technically, the Democrats could pass a law simply allocating all state electors to themselves, if they controlled the state government. It would be entirely legal.

GayOldLady

“Killing people is regulated by the states. The federal government had
no business (tenth amendment) interfering in the first place.”

Oh, I see you’re anti-choice. Trying to pass yourself off as a libertarian when what you really are is a neo-con. It isn’t murder Kate because before viability there’s no person. I bet you’re for the Personhood Amendment too. In the meantime know this, MY BODY, MY CHOICE, and I had 3 children. You really don’t know WTH you’re talking about.

Kate

“Oh, I see you’re anti-choice.”

No, I’m anti-murder.

“Trying to pass yourself off as a libertarian when what you really are is a neo-con.”

I’m an independent, and Trump is the only non-democrat vote I’ve cast in my entire life.

“It isn’t murder Kate because before viability there’s no person.”

You and I define person very differently.

“MY BODY, MY CHOICE”

Our laws, your consequences. You can kill your one day old child, too (by simply refusing to feed it), and we will send you to prison if you do.

Will Parkinson

Trump said he plans to nominate Scalia type judges for the Supreme Court. Still think it’s ‘settled’ law? I think you may be a little delusional.

Kate

Even Scalia wouldn’t overturn it at this point. Assuming he were still alive.

Jerry

That’s incredibly delusional. Scalia would over Lawrence v. TX, or Obergefell in a heartbeat…if he still had one.

Will Parkinson

I would love to live in the fantasy world you do, but here in reality, we know better.

UrsusArctos

HA! So is Roe v Wade, which is likely to go down on Mr Trump (or Pence’s) watch. The GOP doesn’t do “settled law” unless it’s settled in their position.

tristram

They can and will undercut marriage equality in a thousand ways even before they get their majority on SCOTUS. But the day Trump makes his second nomination to the Court, they will have a case teed up to challenge Obergefell and Windsor. And both will be overturned or substantially eroded.

TimCA

She’s not naive. She knows exactly what she’s doing. At best she just doesn’t care. “Kate” ‘s hatred for immigrants and her gun fetish are the things that shape her political views. She doesn’t give a shit about civil rights (gay or otherwise) and frankly is hostile to them. She’s a complete waste of time.

stevenj

Your head in in the sand? “give Trump a chance”? If you’re into legalized discrimination in public accommodations (just because you think that makes it ok for you to discriminate also) you are headed down the wrong rabbit hole.

Oshtur

What’s really bringing asked for is special statutory exceptions to civil rights laws regarding religious freedom – completely unconstitutional. There most certainly not be a law that gives one view special legal coverage.

They will go after laws that force private businesses to serve people.

So that is civil rights laws which the obliteration of has been their obvious endgame for years.

But as later comments indicate I do hope it happens, I hope worse happens. This election must make the populace bleed. I want in three generations when somebody says they’re not going to vote all you’ll have to look at them and say “Trump” and they will scurry off to the polls.

ryan charisma

paid Russian troll

Gerry Fisher

These laws don’t force private businesses to serve people in a universal sense. For example, if I show up stinky and causing a disturbance, I can be excluded from service based on that behavior, even though Maryland protects LGBT people. What the laws do is prevent a private business from *denying* *service* based only on membership in a protected group, a group that has been historically been submitted to unfair discrimination. That’s an important distinction.

It will be interesting to see if such carve-outs open the door to excluding service based on race, gender, veteran’s status…whatever…due to “sincere religious beliefs.” The Republicans have been known to “go for too much too fast” (for more info, see HB2 in North Carolina).

Kate

Depending on how the law is worded, we might still be able to use it to discriminate against christians.

If it permits companies to fire people based on “sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage equality”, we should be able to fire people for acting against our sincerely held religious belief in favour of marriage equality.

Chiro Magna

I hate that phrase “religious carveout” which implies that a slice of deeply religious people can refuse service to gays based on their religious beliefs. In reality — it is a far-reaching permission slip for ALL bigots – religious or not – to hate on gay people.

Is there a lie detector test involved so we can prove a business owner is really deeply religious VS. just a garden variety bigot?

Kate

That’s why we should completely ignore religion, and follow non-religious laws. Religious beliefs should not exclude anyone from the law.

andrew

Trump talks out of both sides of his mouth. He says marriage equality is settled law and promises the Fundamentalist Christians that he will appoint Justices who will overturn it.

Matt

It’s unconstitutional, but I don’t know that it matters to today’s republicant assholes.

watchthewingnuts

The Republican view of the Constitution is like their view of the Bible. It says whatever they want it to say that conveniently fits their narrative of the moment. Everything else in it is completely irrelevant.

Martin

This will erase 50 to 60 years of progress overnight.

There will be no way to stop it from happening.

We should start planning now for a national gay sick-out of indeterminate length.
That will be the ONLY way to reverse this certainty.

Hue-Man

Wedding Wars (2006)

After a gay party planner discovers his brother is behind the governor’s
speech against gay marriage, he decides to go on strike for equal
rights.

Guess we know who to gofundme now and for what purpose. Anyone have the Soprano’s contact info?

Xiao Ai

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500

EweTaw

Again, as a native son and gay man of Utah it is time for a Second Amendment solution to rid us of this Mike Lee problem.

Dirk Prophet

It is the corporation that hires and fires, not the owners of the corporation for obvious liability concerns.

How can a corporation be religious? Does it worship? Does it have original sin? Does it go to heaven or hell? Do corporations have an immortal soul? Can god grant forgiveness?

SCOTUS needs to explain how religious corporate personhood works because I sure as hell don’t fucking get it.

EweTaw

“Corporations are people too, my friend.”

Dirk Prophet

If a manish corporation lies with another manish corporation as it would with a womanish corporation, should we throw stones?

EweTaw

No. We should throw rice.

boatboy_srq

No, but we might want to buy shares…

Cuberly

…and, they’re immortal too!

EweTaw

Corporation run Kolob.

Cuberly

Yep, the true Olympians.

Chucktech

Do corporations ever have to excuse themselves to go to the bathroom?

No? Then corporations aren’t people, my friend.

UrsusArctos

As soon as TX executes a corporation, I’ll consider that they MAY be “people”.

RoFaWh

Guillotine the CEO?

UrsusArctos

I’m thinking pull the corporate charter then distribute the assets to debt holders non-corporate share holders AFTER clawing back everything they can find from the board and corporate officers.

Lazycrockett

Going after all the groups you hate at the same time tends to unite those groups against you. Also taking away rights already granted is much much harder than one realizes.

Heaventree

Well remember: unless I can legally prohibit you from doing X,Y, and Z because my preferred deity doesn’t like it, I have no religious freedom

LaChatSayWha

“And don’t call me out on my hateful opinions and actions! That’s diskriminhashun!!” If we’re not quietly allowing them to maintain their unequal rights at the expense of our own, we’re oppressing them.

fuow

Great. Just Great.
Thanks all you gay men who couldn’t be bothered to vote for Hillary because ‘they’re all the same’ and ‘elections don’t matter’.

pch1013

Beetlejuice…

EweTaw

Beetlejuice…

Gene

Bettlejuice…

Gene

(but showing up to face the music at such moments involves a certain character in said person most would find lacking in him)

fuow

You’re so sweet.
When they start taking away our human and civil rights as gay men, I hope they take yours first, asswipes.

Gene

I was referring to Bill P…who was to holier than thou to vote for Clinton, because she spoke to a banking group (and other bullshit). ALL GLBT people should have voted for her even if she had horns, cause the devil herself is better than Trump.

it was not a comment on you, on the idiot “They are all the same, totally the same” B P

fuow

I’m well aware of your antipathy to Bill and my comment stands. Bill is wrong on many things, but at least he has the balls to openly disagree with the A-List hive mind.
One big reason we’re in this mess is because too many gay men* refuse to accept anything but the officially authorized view.

Todd20036

Here is the officially authorized view.

There are 2 national parties in this country.

2. Not 3. Not 5. 2

One party wants to treat LBGTs as equal citizens, and one does not.

Pick a party.

Any vote for anything other than the democratic party is a vote for hatred.

There’s your official, authorized view.

Vista-Cruiser

There WERE two national parties in this country. Beginning this coming January, there will be only one. And it has extremely authoritarian tendencies.

Gene

pardon.. “BUT on the idiot…”

I have always liked and respected you…hell…with that icon, who could not ?

🙂

Moebym, Resistance Pilot

And the ones who voted for Trump because Hillary allegedly took donations to the Foundation from nations that execute gays, but had no problem with anti-LGBT Mike Pence.

Butch

And to the Log Cabin members and any other member of the LGBTQI community who voted for Trump: This is what you brought us. Thanks for nothing.

Todd20036

Less than nothing. They don’t really give a shit about gay rights. Just tax cuts to enlarge their portfolios.

…protecting the beliefs of ALL Americans. ya’ll hear that? that’s what we need to jump on. my (whatever) belief is as valid as yours. so, start turning away these fucks. all of these fucks. start declining services to them. anything and everywhere.

Todd20036

They’ll say, any “gay” person can withhold services from other gay people for religious reasons.
SO it’s all good.

Goodboy

I already do since I don’t associate with crazy people and/or bigots.

we’re still here

What a world of sickness and division the repugs want everyone to live in. But no doubt they will not support the muslim air hostess who refuses to serve drinks, and the muslim cab driver who refuses to take a disabled passenger with his guide dog ‘because it’s against his religion’

Excuse me, don’t you know that the first “R” in RFRA stands for Christian???

aar9n

Make sure they post signs in their windows so we know which businesses don’t serve colored folk.

Oops I mean gay folk silly autocorrect

CanuckDon

Watch them all cry “no fair” when their discriminatory ways become wide public knowledge. Social media will definitely come in handy and help to crush their distorted thinking that they’re the good guys.

fuow

Be nice to think so, but I really believe we’re screwed. We’re going to lose everything which was (finally) recognized as our right in the last eight years.

Ninja0980

Yup, back to having three flash drives and documents for the hubby and I to protect ourselves if we have to travel out of NY,

CanuckDon

Keep in mind that there are fewer of them than ten years ago. There is an increase in those un-affiliated with religion. The majority of millenials aren’t buying into their crazy shit. Corporations know the value of gay talent as well.

Vista-Cruiser

We’re going to lose everything we’ve gained in the past 150 years.

aar9n

I’ll be closing my business to those freaks with a relationship with Jesus. If you can discriminate against one person’s relationship… /s

Goodboy

$ trumps any of their so called religious convictions so they never do.

Clive Johnson

Log Cabin Republicans: “Trust us, the Anti-gay Party is the one that will best support LGBT equality.”

The Anti-gay Party proposes a new law to legalize discrimination.

Log Cabin Republicans: “We’re not sure what happened here, but we can assure you that the Anti-gay Party is our best bet for ensuring LGBT equality under the law.”

Bad Tom

No, it won’t protect the beliefs of ALL Americans.
Just the special few.

Cuberly

Here we go, the Christian hyper-citizenship bill. Anyone not a christian is 1/2 American whereas Christians are 1-1/2 times a citizen.

Christianist whims are to be met with complete servitude.

Pat

This is why I left the fold. I can’t belong to a hate organization. And since when do Catholics need special protections? Shouldn’t it be the other way around, altar boys need protection? Is anyone launching grenades when Gramma goes to the 7 AM mass?

UrsusArctos

Actually Dominionist Pentecostals think Catholics aren’t Xian but idol worshipers. They’ll need protections if Pence & co use them to get their way. Just like jews don’t get that the “End Times” folks don’t like Jews and support Israel for one reason – to bring on the rapture which doesn’t end well for Jews.

Pat

It’s funny but Catholics in big cities and heavily populated Catholic areas have completely lost that sense of being the outsider, maybe because so many prominent politicians, etc. are Catholic. But there are plenty still around who do think Catholics are disgusting pagan idol worshippers and who believe Jews have horns. And it seems like crazy time in the USA so no one should ever say it couldn’t happen here.

Paula

Well, that wouldn’t work out too well with me. I would be in prison in short order. The first one that tried to do that would meet a rather, quick untimely, messy demise.

Cuberly

Yeah I’m pretty sure my blasphemous mouth would land me in the klink rather quickly as well.

that’s the kicker….who draws the line? or is it really “anything goes”?
cause if someone does draw a line, then you’re giving preferential treatment to one religion over another.
if it’s “anything goes”, well, let the floodgate open, bitches!

Cuberly

Yep….and how exactly does one test for “sincerely held religious beliefs”? Talk about a litmus test. Would Scientology meet the requirements?

Chucktech

cause if someone does draw a line, then you’re giving preferential treatment to one religion over another.

“Good christians” are way too stupid to understand this means other religions, too. They “think” the RFRA is actually CFRA (Christian Freedom Restoration Act).

It’s all fun & games until Xian internecine inter-sect warfare breaks out. That crap will keep them so busy attacking each other for “believing wrong” that the Shiia/Sunni split will look like a model marriage.

Pat

So deeply discouraging that this creature’s election is bringing all the filth at the bottom up again. I joined the ACLU to help them fight outrageous intrusions of religion into civil rights like this, These people who hide behind their “religious beliefs” always turn out to be hypocrites, hiding behind religion to mask their bigotry. Trust Trump? I’d trust him to screw every American over twice for a buck.

The glass is half full kind of thinking. Of coarse it’s about to be shattered but hey.

LaChatSayWha

Those are the days they miss in the USA. When they could bash the fuck out of fags, lynch black folks, attack any minority with impunity, and expect to walk down the middle of the sidewalk while the rest of us lowered our eyes and kept out of their way.

And here we are in 2016, with the plutocrats giving them permission to bully in exchange for the keys to the country. Nevertheless, while it may look great for them right now, but they are going to find out that none of us are going back.

We’re used to fighting. We’re accustomed to this bullshit. The opposition is strong, but there are more of us and we’re smarter and we’re stronger. And we’re not going back.

RoFaWh

…the plutocrats kleptocrats…

boatboy_srq

“Sincerely held religious beliefs” of corporations better be explicitly First Church of Mammon.

bkmn

Knowing the Rethugs they will draft the law so wide and expansive that it will be thrown out in court. They are not good at drafting constitutional laws.

fuow

I wish. Doubt it, though.

Todd20036

Depends on the courts.
Scalia would have allowed such a law to be deemed constitutional, no matter what his legal knowledge was.

bkmn

It will take a while to reach SCOTUS and in the mean time there are plenty of circuit courts that would rule against this kind of law.

bobbleobble

It will take a while, plenty of time for Trump to replace Scalia and quite possibly Kennedy, Ginsburg and Breyer too. If that happens heaven help us.

RoFaWh

Thank gawd that turd is dead.

Todd

What do the Log Cabin Republicans have to say now ?

Friend of the gays, my ass.

We’re an easier enemy to pick off first than the Mexicans or Muslims.

Todd20036

Yup, given the number of people who hate us for existing.
Wonder if reeducation camps are next.

boatboy_srq

“Reparative therapy” facilities.

Jimmy R

A.k.a., ovens.

Ninja0980

Conversion therapy camps, here we come!

Ninja0980

If they’re like the stupid former friend of my cousin who kept on working for my former anti-gay Congresswoman Ann Burekle after she let him know he didn’t deserve marriage equality, they’ll talk about fiscal issues and abortion.

Gil

“What do the Log Cabin Republicans have to say now?”

Well, down a previously trodden road I expect they’ll be the one’s handing out towels to use the showers.

Goodboy

Crickets..

John Ruff

Lob Cabin Republicans are now enemies of the state

Henry Auvil

Just don’t try to pass a bill taking away my freedom to say “FUCK YOU!”, assholes. Because it won’t work.

Why can’t you not want to undo that unnecessary anti everything thing ?

RoFaWh

Gawd spare you the horrors of having to learn a language where negatives are always expressed several times.

“There ain’t no water in the well.”

Gene

OT Scary note…very scary

Geert Wilders party is now projected to get 36 of the 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament. with some parties of similar outlook, if that happens, he is in very good…even probable, position to become PM (or the power behind the PM at least). 36 of 150 seats is actually a HUGE block (about a dozen bigger than the next largest party, and most parties have 10, 12 etc) by their standards

Polling also shows that, just as in the UK, the “dutchexit” vote he says he will call for, would pass. Dutch society is to set to put in any anti gay laws, but, the future of the Euro (which I know from many personal conversations even with liberals and many gay pals there, is NOT loved) would be DONE. support for leaving the Euro zone is way stronger than even the desire to leave the EU, which is surprisingly strong, coming from a founding member)

not good…not good at all
the election is March 15

Lazycrockett

Aww I guess Joe Walsh got blocked by Drumpf’s twitter feed.

Robert Conner

Another shit-eating, climate change denying member of the Mormon mind control cult. Figures.

EweTaw

And he wants to privatize National Parks and sell off all public lands to private developers.

I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but this will likely be filibustered in the Senate. I can’t think of a single Senate Dem that would go along with this unnecessary nonsense and at least a few Republicans who won’t, either. Even the conservative Democrats know discrimination is a nonstarter. It’s still terrifying, nonetheless.

Gene

i suspect you are right…but, I am afraid they will attach it to a defense bill..etc.
but stand alone..no..its bad press now, even for most rank and file republicans

itsjoe618

Yeah, they’ll try sneaking it in, no doubt, at the last moment because they know it’ll never get passed as a stand alone measure, but such an amendment will fly right into the teeth of a 40+ Senate filibuster. Steamrolling thru such garbage isn’t a walk in the park like it was 20 years ago for the haters. I’m not saying they won’t try, but the odds are more in our favor, at least if people remain vigilant.

Vista-Cruiser

One of the first things Republicans are going to do is get rid of the filibuster.

Rebecca Gardner

I’m so depressed. I mean that literally. I just called my Therapist for an appointment. I just can’t take the news anymore.

itsjoe618

You’ve got every reason to feel that way. But, looking at the glass half full, it’ll be a lot harder to have this steamrolled through than it would have been ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago. It’ll die in the Senate, a much deserved death for such an odious piece of legislation.

KnownDonorDad

I don’t know if this will help, but remember that discriminatory laws are not popular. Jan Brewer vetoed one in Arizona. Pence got backlash in Indiana and ended up signing a revised version of the bill. Pat McCrory was voted out of office after supporting HB2 in a state that went to Trump. They should be careful of what they wish for.

pepón

We did it before, we’ll do it again. We fought our way out of worse than trumpet, and florished, and created some of the greatest art in the world. Sisters and brothers together . And we’ll do it again. And we’ll beat them again. And with a bit of luck, we’ll beat religion too.

Ninja0980

The sad thing is this would have happened under any Republican.
Never forget that.

no. but this will happen under a government *totally* under republican control.

KnownDonorDad

Cruz would have made it a main goal.

John Ruff

If you’re gay and you voted for Trumpf, you’re as much a domestic terrorist as Senator Lee

itsjoe618

They’re the LGBT version of Kapos.

UrsusArctos

Not quite the appropriate analogy (yet). My understanding is that for Kapos it was co-operate or die (sooner). The homocons go along with GOP crap freely. That moves them into a whole ‘nuther basket of deplorables.

This is so fucking depressing. How can this country be so stupid? In my 50s I have to go back to being a second class citizen because morons wouldn’t vote for Hillary.
What the fuck is the point of fighting any of this anymore? We are going to get steamrolled and we could see it coming.

GayOldLady

Come on baby!!!! I’m in my 70’s and I’m going to continue fighting and so are you.

Oikos

This has been a terrible year on so many levels and I am exhausted and feeling hopeless. Each day brings more horror and the feeling that there is nothing that can change what will come with dump in the WH.

GayOldLady

We’re going to get through this together. We’re going to fight just like we fought for each other during the HIV/AIDS epidemic years. ACTUP. We’re going to stand by each other just like we have in the fight for Marriage Equality. We’re going to be brothers & sisters till the end. They’re going to have to drag us off the playing field kicking and screaming and I can still do both.

Brava! It all seems hopeless, but we need to gird our loins and beat those plowshares into swords and run the bastards thru. We did, well the elders did it in the ACTUP years, us young’ns can sit at your knee and learn how to fight the good fight! Onward LGBT soldiers!

MBear

The fact that there is a constant pressure to remove any/all of your civil rights would mean, to me at least, that you are currently no more than a second class citizen.

BudClark

How do you think those of us feel who have been in the trenches since the ’60s and ’70s? And all of us who buried friends and lovers because of Ronnie Raygun’s utter indifference to The Epidemic? We lost seven long years of research on account of HIM. And Nancy let Rock Hudson DIE “so as not to show favoritism.”

I’m not capable of much … I’m 72 years old, and in a wheelchair … but I will FIGHT until my last BREATH!

Oikos

I know how you feel. I was an adult during Raygun and buried friends in the 80s as well.

GayOldLady

Enshrining LGBT discrimination? surprise, surprise surprise

The Milkman

This will eventually head to the SCOTUS. They will need to decide the real question, which is where one person’s religious rights end and another person’s civil rights begin. That is why we needed to win so badly, and why a vigorous opposition is imperative during the next dark 4 years. May God protect the health and vigor of Justice Ginsberg.

Ninja0980

If she had retired a couple of years ago.. we wouldn’t have to worry about her health either.

Chucktech

If we hadn’t allowed Russia’s thumb on the scale we wouldn’t have to worry, either.

itsjoe618

& Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy. We’ll need them all plus Sotomayor and Kagan to beat back the incoming tide of hate dressed up as laws in the next few years.

The_Wretched

Don’t miss that the republicans are pushing for more rights of human beings to apply to companies (legal fictions).

Ninja0980

My friend in California knows former porn star Jayden Grey.
He and his stupid husband voted for Trump so one can hope they’ll be one of the first people to encounter the fallout from this bill if it passes.

GayOldLady

Ugh……Let me guess…..women haters?

Ninja0980

Yup, and shallow people to boot.

Chucktech

Porn stars generally aren’t known for their perspicacity.

Ninja0980

Nope, he and his husband are proof of that.

John Ruff

Porn actors usually have something wrong with them in the head.

GayOldLady

Don’t fool yourself into believing that the people who voted for tRump were not totally aware that they were voting against the LGBT community and a Woman’s right to Choose and Latino’s and AA’s. These bastards are going to set us back 100 years. Make America a Straight White Man World Again.

RoFaWh

…before all the white-haired geezers die…

John Ruff

As a healthcare provider, I will gladly exercise my rights to not treat domestic terrorists, I.e. rethugs, Christians, and libertarians, when they’re having a medical emergency. There’s more than one hospital, you know.

RoFaWh

Not everywhere. There are lots of places where there’s only one and it’s owned by the RCC.

TheSeer

The religious freedom and the First Amendment rights of the 2 Corinthians need to be protected.

Ninja0980

On this very subject… a friend of mine who worked for Rep. Richard Hanna has now resigned from the Republican Party and switched her registration to Independent, in large part because even here in NY, the Republican party has been taken over by the bigots.
And with a NOM teabagger replacing LGBT ally Hanna, she finally threw in the towel and realize the party her family has belonged to for three generations no longer fits her views.
Such a shame more won’t follow her.

Treant

My mother went a few weeks ago, all the way from R to D.

Ragnar Lothbrok

Going from Reverse to Drive is always a good thing.

RoFaWh

Remember automatic transmissions with push button shifting? (They were around ca. 1960 and may still exist.)

When I was in high school, the rumor in the driving classes was about someone cruising down the highway at great speed in drive and somehow managing to push reverse. Whereupon the car dropped its transmission on the road.

Bj Lincoln

I wish my family would do that.

Gigi

But I had a discussion with a gay Trump supporter who said we had nothing to worry about because “Trump is the mod pro-gay candidate ever to be elected President!”

KnownDonorDad

He totally held up a rainbow flag (upside down)!

TomInCentralFL

I don’t think i care to patronize a business that wants to discriminate against me. So please, if this is a law, how about include the requirement to post on the front door that they discriminate against LGBT to let everyone know. I do not want to even walk through their door. I feel letters to my senators and rep in the near future. Lots and lots of letters.

GayOldLady

“how about include the requirement to post on the front door that they discriminate against LGBT to let everyone know”

We’ll have to identify them and place those signs ourselves. Because they are the laziest, dumbest, most pampered and most craven COWARDS ever.

I don’t know how many times this year I’ve read impassioned arguments from these bigots claiming that they’re being discriminated against (*roll eyes*) and oppressed because people simply call them out on their bigotry.

They have no idea what it is to have a panic attack and look around for fag-bashers when you see a queer couple holding hands and you think you might need to jump to their defense. I have lived in SF most of my life and I still react like that. And even though things have definitely changed, there is still good reason to be prepared. It’s only been two weeks since the last time someone screamed anti-gay slurs at me and swerved their car at me.

I will happily design and post signs that read “This business is a FAG-FREE business. Homos and perverts not served here.” None of their weaselly language about being godly christians opposed to “homosexuality.” Your hate is not polite, so use the same words in public that you speak in your home.

GayOldLady

Exactly! And I’m sorry you’re still living in fear. Keep your cell phone handy when you’re out and film the creeps. Nothing will stop them quicker than to think their faces or their tag number is going to make it to the cops or the internet.

TomInCentralFL

Thank you. Brilliant.

RoFaWh

Remember, please, that some people live where there is no alternative if you want pizza.

Canadian Observer

More of this corporations as people nonsense. Can we at least require that all corporations have to declare their denominational bias? Perhaps there would be grounds for legal action against some of those, in the retail sector in particular, for operating on the Sabbath. And clothing manufacturers who create “blends”. And restaurant chains that force treif or haram food on the unsuspecting. (feel free to join in with your suggestions of corporations violating biblical/koranic etc. laws)

Mike C

Ok, so this is terrible, of course, but doesn’t this bill allow us to, in turn, refuse service? If it passes then they need to be given a taste of discrimination.

GayOldLady

Only as a religious objection. So you’d have to demonstrate proof that it violated your religious conscience.

Ragnar Lothbrok

Time for the LGBT United Church of Decency.

Gianni

Beyond that is the fact that ‘Sexual Orientation’ is not one of the protected categories listed in the national Civil Rights Act. So, unless the state where one lives has a State Civil Rights Act that includes ‘sexual orientation’ as a protected category, any person or business is free to discriminate against gay people, married or single.

GayOldLady

Businesses that discriminate against LGBT community should have a sign placed in their door stating “We do not serve the LGBT community”. Let’s see how many businesses are willing to do that.

If as a practitioner of say Shinto, could I legally discriminate against xtians if this bill passes? I know that xtians are a protected class, but wouldn’t this bill loosen their protection against discrimination?

TheManicMechanic

Time to burn some megachurches.

RoFaWh

Note that the Crystal Cathedral is now owned by the RCC.

JaniceInToronto

That certainly didn’t take long. Better hope it doesn’t get to the Supremes.

kevin vincent

It won even get past Senate quite a few Republicans are from Purple-ish states and even in Red States like Indiana there was massive backlash and we see how it ended up for McBigot he lost a state that went to Trump and unlike members of the House they aren’t protected from Gerrymandering.

They couldn’t get it through with Bush and that was before LGBT rights had majority support. This is red meat Lee knows this will be fillebustered to hell by Democrats and a not so small portion of Republicans won’t want to touch it

JaniceInToronto

Trump won. You can safely think the unthinkable now.

Shitty, eh?

kevin vincent

Except I never found his victory unthinkable in fact I had a feeling he would win despite hoping it would be wrong and I got blasted for that.

But point remains no Democrat will support the bill and they would need every Republican to vote for it and I say Agee would refuse (

if I remember Shelly Moore Capito had been consistently against such bulls and she is from WV who from my personal experience growing up in A TINY town homophobia isn’t very big there plus WV put SSM in without any issue at all all they care about is coal

joe ho

Self-righteous liberal purists who thought it more important to virtue signal than to keep Trump out of office, enjoy!

Republicans have party discipline and vote for candidates they don’t necessarily like. They win. Democrats have to be in love to vote. They lose.

As someone who’s insulated from the worst effects of this, I’m now actually looking forward to the assault on all the civil rights advances of the last 50 years.

Gil

Self-righteous “liberal” sycophants who think it perfectly reasonable to be bled to death slowly by the kleptocracy than have their throat slit by the marketplace in on fell swoop.

Choices, choices….

joe ho

that’s an easy choice for rational folks.

Gil

no, that’s an easy choice for cowards less prone to open panic.

andrew

I think most “self-righteous” liberals voted for Hillary. The blame for Trump’s win lies elsewhere.

I guess the 1% of voters who voted for Stein was just too much for the ‘vote for Clinton or be damned’ supporters. They don’t seem to realize that we will always have elections in which people vote for 3rd party candidates, just as we will always have elections in which some people choose to stay home and not vote.

coram nobis

As usual it’s the confusion between holding one’s own religious faith and inflicting it on others, for instance, between refusing a blood transfusion and, as an EMT, refusing to give it to someone else.

RBG’s dissent in Hobby Lobby: “Religious organizations exist to foster the interests of persons subscribing to the same religious faith. Not so of for-profit corporations. Workers who sustain the operations of those corporations commonly are not drawn from one religious community.”

At some point the courts are going to have to decide whether the Free Exercise Clause overwhelms everything else in the Constitution, including the Establishment Clause. It’s not the Druids or the Unitarians whose view of LGBT people is at issue here.

Oh, and by the way, does one’s religious belief now preclude military orders to the contrary? Someone in the military thought they could wear a yarmulke, but the Court said the military could indeed forbid it. Goldman v. Weinberger, 475 U.S. 503 (1986).

Richard B

Mike Lee, our country does not need FADA, you need to relax to a bong hit and a blow job.

They don’t like to hear that and a lot of them refuse to believe that. WE CHOOSE to be gay, or haven’t you heard.

fuzzybits

Yep,almost 50 years.

Nowhereman

That reminds me. What ever happened to Trump’s good buddy Caitlyn Jenner?
Seriously, how about these slackers do their job for a change and pass a goddam budget BEFORE we default on our loans and get our interest rates raised again. Isn’t that what they are elected to do? It seems that all of their time is spent on making other people’s lives miserable and dangerous.

Gianni

I was thinking the other day that we haven’t seen or heard a thing from or about Caitlyn lately. What gives? We weren’t able to go a whole day w/o her name cropping up somewhere.

Nowhereman

Buyer’s remorse? Seriously, I wonder.

FAEN

Is this the revolution you wanted Susan fucking Sarandon?

Gerry Fisher

All predictable…to adults who have a brain and who follow politics a bit.

Bj Lincoln

It’s not as if we didn’t warn people before the election. EVERY person Drumpf put in charge is anti-gay so I’m not surprised. The world already thinks we have lost our minds. What will they think if this shit goes thru and makes millions of harmless, hard working Americans second class citizens? I knew this was coming and I’m sick to think I am being forced back into the closet after winning my rights.

fuow

You and me both. I’m so angry, so furious, I’ve limited my criticism to gay men.
Yes, women (young women in particular) were beyond words foolish to stay home or vote for Stein. I’ll let them be called out for their actions by others – I’m focusing on my side of our queer house, the group with the second most to lose, gay men.
I can’t imagine any but one transgender person being that fucking stupid.

Halou

The Republicans and their desperate need to discriminate. And their need for a distraction is made all the more urgent by the proposed investigation into election interference by foreign governments that may flag the President-elect as a traitor.

djcoastermark

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Welcome back to the 50’s and 60’s, only this time the signs on the storefronts will say “We Don’t Serve Gays, Straights Only”

Vista-Cruiser

The 1850s and 1860s.

ultragreen

The 19th century is over and done with. When will Republicans recognize this elementary fact?

RoFaWh

Never.

NancyP

Of course, LAY Catholic opinion matters not at all, unless the layman is conservative and owns a company.

Gregory Peterson

I wonder if there were similar bills introduced to Congress after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to “protect” people with sincere beliefs that God is a pathetic bigot.

Dale Snyder

Oh good. Then I can refuse fat christianist pigs service for being vile sinful gluttons, like the orange-dyed hair orangatan.

I read an article on Alternet that put it neatly: There is no kindness in them.

RoFaWh

Perhaps repeating an earlier comment:

How can a corporation have any religious belief at all?

Rt1583

“will reintroduce a bill next year to protect people and corporations that hold a religious objection”
And they wail and gnash their teeth about how liberals are destroying the Constitution.
I think a similar bill should be introduced which protects people and corporations that hold a secular objection to religion.

Another “christian” – well, a Mormon so that’s up for discussion – going after a group of Americans they don’t like. And Mormons always wonder why everyone hates them? Hello? I lived in SLC I know how “nice” they can be to your face and how backstabbing they are when they get together at their wards. Jesus would puke.